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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: STE-SUS |
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STOKES, SIR GEORGE GABRIEL, BART . (18191903), British mathematician and physicist, was the youngest son of the Rev. Gabriel Stokes, rector of Skreen, Co. Sligo, where he was born on the 13th of August 1819. After attending schools in Dublin and Bristol, he matriculated in 1837 at Pembroke College, Cambridge , where, four years later, on graduating as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, he was elected to a fellowship. This he had to vacate by the statutes of that society when he married in 1857, but twelve years later, under new statutes, he was re-elected, and retained his place on the foundation until 1902, when, on the day before he entered on his eighty-fourth year, he was elected to the mastership. But he did not long enjoy this position, for he died at Cambridge on the 1st of February in the following year. In 1849 he was appointed to the Lucasian professorship of mathematics in the university, and on the 1st of June 1899 the jubilee
Stokes was the oldest of the t>'io Q natural philosophers, Clerk Maxwell and Lord Kelvin being the other two, who especially contributed to the fame of the Cambridge school of mathematical physics in the middle of the 19th century. His original
paper on the dynamical theory of diffraction, in which he showed that the plane of polarization must be perpendicular to the direction of vibration. Two years later he discussed the colours of thick plates; and in 1852, in his famous paper on the change of refrangibility of light, he described the phenomenon of fluorescence, as exhibited by fluorspar and uranium glass, materials which he viewed as having the power to convert invisible ultra-violet rays into rays of lower periods which are visible. A mechanical model, illustrating the dynamical principle of Stokes's explanation was shown in 1883, during a lecture at the Royal Institution, by Lord Kelvin, who said he had heard an account of it from Stokes many years before, and had repeatedly but vainly begged him to publish it. In the same year, 1852, there appeared the paper on the composition and resolution of streams of polarized light from different sources, and in 1853 an investigation of the metallic reflection exhibited by certain non-metallic substances. About 186o he was engaged in an inquiry on the intensity of light reflected from, or transmitted through, a pile
parency and the improvement of achromatic telescopes. A still later paper connected with the construction of optical instruments discussed the theoretical limits to the aperture of microscopical objectives. In other departments of physics may be mentioned his paper on the conduction of heat in crystals (1851) and his inquiries in connexion with the radiometer; his explanation of the light border frequently noticed in photographs just outside the outline of a dark body
series (1847) and on the numerical calculation of a class of definite integrals and infinite series (185o) and his discussion of a differential equation relating to the breaking of railway bridges (1849).But large as is the tale of Stokes's published work, it by no means represents the whole of his services in the advancement of science. Many of his discoveries were not published, or at least were only touched upon in the course of his oral lectures. An excellent instance is afforded by his work in the theory of spectrum analysis. In his presidential address to the British Association in 1871, Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson, as he was then) stated his belief that the application of the prismatic analysis of light to solar and stellar chemistry had never been suggested directly or indirectly by any other savant when Stokes taught it to him in Cambridge some time prior to the summer of 1852, and he set forth the conclusions, theoretical and practical, which he learnt from Stokes at that time, and which he afterwards gave regularly in his public lectures at Glasgow. These statements, containing as they do the physical basis on which spectrum analysis rests, and the mode in which it is applicable to the identification of substances existing in the sun and stars, make it appear that Stokes anticipated Kirchhoff by at least seven or eight years. Stokes, however, in a letter published some years after the delivery of this address, stated that he had failed to take one essential step in the argument (not perceiving that emission of light of definite refrangibility not merely permitted, but necessitated, absorption of light of the same refrangibility), and modestly disclaimed " any part of Kirchhoff 's admirable discovery," adding that he felt some of his friends had been over-zealous in his cause. It must be said, however, that English men of science have not accepted this disclaimer in all its fullness, and still attribute to Stokes the credit of having first enunciated the fundamental principles of spectrum analysis: In another way, too, Stokes did much for the progress of mathematical physics. Soon after he was elected to the Lucasian chair he announced that he regarded it as part of his professional duties to help any member of the university in difficulties he might encounter in his mathematical studies, and the assistance. rendered was so real that pupils were glad to consult him, een after they had become colleagues, on mathematical and physical problems in which they found themselves at a loss. Then during the thirty years he acted as secretary of the Royal Society he exercised an enormous if inconspicuous influence on the advancement of mathematical and physical science, not only directly by his own investigations, but indirectly by suggesting problems for inquiry and inciting men to attack them, and by his readiness to give encouragement and help.Several of the honours enjoyed by Sir George Stokes have already been enumerated. In addition, it may be mentioned that from the Royal Society, of which he became a fellow in 1851, he received the Rumford medal in 1852 in recognition of his inquiries into the refrangibility of light, and later, in 1893, the Copley medal. In 1869 he presided over the Exeter meeting of the British Association. From 1883 to 1885 he was Burnett lecturer at Aberdeen, his lectures on Light, which were published in 1884-1887, dealing with its nature, its use as a means of investigation, and its beneficial effects. In 1891, as Gifford lecturer, he published a volume on Natural Theology. His academical distinctions included honorary degrees from many universities, together with membership of the Prussian Order Pour le Write. Sir George Stokes's mathematical and physical papers were published in a collected form in five volumes; the first three (Cam-bridge, 188o, 1883, and 1901) under his own editorship, and the two last (Cambridge, 1904 and 1905) under that of Sir Joseph Larmor, who also selected and arranged the Memoir and Scientific Correspondence of Stokes published at Cambridge in 1907. End of Article: STOKES, SIR GEORGE GABRIEL, BART If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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